life story

My father retired from the Army in 1987, so my family moved from Germany to Alabama. We bought a house in East Limestone and after living there only one week the house caught on fire. It also happened to be on Halloween.

The roof collapsed and the house sustained major water damage in several areas. We spent the next three months in a rental home, while our house was being rebuilt.

Every Halloween, we would talk about the fire of ’87. We would reminisce about the amount of damage done by the fire, about how lucky we were that nobody was hurt, and about how so many people helped us during our time of need.

Over the years, the emotional sting diminished and we started to do fun things to commemorate the day. Sometimes, we go out to eat at Firehouse Subs or Smokey’s BBQ. Sometimes, we roast marshmallows.

Who controls you? Do you have an internal or an external locus of control?

Those who believe outside forces completely determine what will happen to them, have an external locus of control. They view obstacles as insurmountable and believe they are unable to change their life circumstances.

Those who believe they can impact their life through their own actions, have an internal locus of control. They are not immune to unfortunate events, trauma, or other obstacles. However, they focus on finding solutions to their problems.

It is important to notice, bad things happen to people in both groups. The difference is in how they view negative events and in how they deal with the problems created by those events.